“The House of the Lord,” Temples, Ancient and Modern

The House of the Lord" Temples, Ancient and Modern*

BY ELDER JAMES E.TALMAGE, OF THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES Both by derivation and common usage the term "temple," in itsliteral application, is of restricted and specific meaning.

The essential idea of a temple is and ever has been that of a place specially set apart for service regarded as sacred, and of real or assumed sanctity. The Latin Templum was the equivalent of the Hebrew Beth Elohitn, and signified the abode of a deity hence, as associated ;

with divine worship, it meant literally the House of the Lord.** Structures inclosing sanctuaries, temples, as the term is technically applied, have been erected alike by worshippers of idols and by the followers of the true and living God. The numerous heathen temples of antiquity were regarded as abiding places of the mythical gods and goddesses whose names they bore, and to whose service the structures were dedicated. While the outer purlieus of such temples were used as places of general assembly and public ceremony, there were always inner precincts, into which only the consecrated priests might enter, and wherein, it was claimed, the presence of the deity was manifest. The altar of pagan worship stood not within the temple proper, but in front of the entrance. The temple, considered as an institution, and as the material embodiment of a principle, has never been regarded as a place of ordinary and public assembly, but as a sacred en-

*Copyright, 1912, by James E. Talmage. **Consider in this connection the significance of the name "Bethel" — a contraction of "Beth Elohim" as applied bv Jacob to the place where the Lord was manifest to him. Said he, "Surely the Lord is in this place * * * And he called the name of that place 'Bethel'." (Gen. 28: 10-19.)

292 • IMPROVEMENT ERA closure devoted to the most solemn rites and ceremonies of that particular system of worship, idolatrous or Divine, of which the temple stood as visible symbol and material type. The people of Israel were of old distinguished among nations as the builders of temples to the living God ; and this service was specifically required of them by Jehovah, whom they professed to serve. Israel's history as a nation dates from the exodus. During the two centuries of their enslavement in Egypt, the children of Jacob had grown to be a numerous and a powerful people ;

nevertheless they were in bondage. In due time, however, their sorrows and supplication came up before the Lord, and he led them forth with the outstretched arm of power. No sooner had they escaped from the environment of Egyptian idolatry, than they were required to prepare a sanctuary, wherein Jehovah would manifest His presence and authority. Note the requirement: And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying Speak unto the children of 1

.

Israel, that they bring- me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil. and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod. and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.*

It may be inferred, and indeed there is good reason for beduring their period of bondage the children of Israel lievirlg, that had raised some structure of pre-eminent sacredness, and that in their hurried departure from Egypt they carried with them at least the essential parts of that sanctuary.

We read that prior to the construction of the tabernacle, and indeed at the very beginning of their journey into the wilderness, the pepole had a certain depository for sacred things, known as the "Testimony." This is definitely mentioned in connection with the following incident. Under divine direction a vessel of manna was to be preserved, lest the people should forget the power and goodness of God, by which they had been fed And Moses said. This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron. Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before

*Exo. 25:1-9.

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294 IMPROVEMENT ERA the Lord, to he kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.*

There appears little room for doubt that the "Testimony" here referred to was a material structure regarded as a sanctuary, and that its name is suggestive of divine witness as to its sacred character. Inasmuch as the account of the exodus contains no mention of the preparation of such a structure, and moreover as its existence and use were definitely affirmed before the people had had time or opportunity to shape it in the wilderness, it would seem that they must have brought the sacred "Testimony" with them from Egypt. This incident is of interest and importance as indicating the existence of a holy sanctuary during the formative stages of Israel'sgrowth as a nation, and while the people were in subjection to idolatrous rulers. History makes plain the fact that the Lord's covenant people have always recognized the need of sanctuaries or temples sacred to His name. The Tabernacle of the Congregation, constructed in accordance with a revealed plan and specifications, was a portable structure, such as the exigencies of migration required. It was little more than a tent, indeed, though made of the best, most prized, and costliest materials the people possessed. This condition of excellence was most appropriate and fitting, for the finished structure was a nation's offering unto the Lord. Its construction was prescribed in minutest detail, both as to design and material it ;

was in every respect the best the people could give, and Jehovah sanctified the proffered gift by His divine acceptance. In passing, let us be mindful of the fact that whether it be the gift of a man or a nation, the best, if offered willingly and with pure intent, is always excellent in the sight of God, however poor by other comparison that best may be. To the call for material wherewith to build the Tabernacle, there was such willing and liberal response that the need was more than met "For the stuff that they had was sufficient for all :

the work to make it, and too much."** Proclamation was made accordingly, and the people were restrained from bringing more. The artificers and workmen engaged in the labor of construction were designated by direct revelation, or chosen by divinely ap-

*Exo. 16:32-34. **Exo. 36:7.

"THE HOUSE OF THE LORD" 295 pointed authority with special reference to their skill and devotion. The completed Tabernacle was a rich and costly fabric. Its frames were of rare woods, its inner hangings of fine linen, elaborately embroidered with prescribed designs, in blue, purple, and scarlet ; its middle and outer curtains of choice skins ; its metal parts of brass, silver, and gold. Within the tabernacle enclosure, and surrounding the main structure,was a court, in which stood the altar of sacrifice, and the laver or font. The first apartment of the Tabernacle proper was an outer room, or Holy Place and beyond this, screened ;

from observation by the second vail, was the inner sanctuary, the Holiest Place, specifically known as the Holy of Holies. In the appointed order, only the priests were permitted to enter the outer apartment ; while to the inner place, the "holiest of all," none but the high priest might be admitted, and he but once a year, and then only after a long course of purification and sanctification.* Among the most sacred appurtenances of the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. This was a casket or chest, made of the best wood obtainable, lined and overlaid with pure gold, and provided with four rings of gold to receive the rods or poles used in carrying the ark during travel. The ark contained certain objects of sacred import, such as the golden pot of manna, preserved as a remembrance ; and to this were afterward added Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of stone inscribed by the hand of God. When the tabernacle was set up in the camp of Israel, the Ark was placed within the inner vail, in the Holy of Holies. Resting upon the ark was the Mercy Seat, surmounted by a pair of cherubims, made of beaten gold. From this seat did the Lord manifest His presence, even as promised before either Ark or Tabernacle had been made And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all thing's which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.**

No detailed description of the Tabernacle, its appurtenances or furniture, will be attempted at this place ; it is sufficient for our present purpose to know that the camp of Tsrael had such a

*Heb. 9:1-7. **Exo. 25:22.

296 IMPROVEMENT ERA sanctuary; that it was constructed according to revealed plan as the people's offering to their God, and that it was duly accepted by Him ;* that it was the embodiment of the best they could give both as to material and workmanship and that in all essential ;

particulars the Tabernacle of the Congregationwas a prototype of the more stable and magnificent Temple by which in course of time it was superseded. When Israel had become established in the land of promise, when, after four decades of wandering in the wilderness, the covenant people possessed at last a Canaan of their own, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, with all its sacred contents, was given a resting place in Shiloh; and thither came the tribes to learn the will and word of God.** Afterward it was removed to Gibeon*** and yet later to the City of David, or Zion.f In process of time the Israelites grew weary of the theocratic government under which they had lived and prospered, and they clamored for a king. David, the second king of Israel, desired and planned to build a house unto the Lord, declaring that it was unfit that he, the king, should dwell in a palace of cedar, while the sanctuary of God was but a tent.| But the Lord spake by the mouth of Nathan the prophet, declining the proposed offering, and making plain the fact that to be acceptable unto him it was not enough that the gift be appropriate, but that the giver must also be worthy. David, king of Israel, though in many respects a man after God's own heart, had sinned and his sin ;

had not yet found atonement. Thus spake the king: "I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building: But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood." || Nevertheless, David was permitted to gather the material for the House of the Lord, which edifice not he, but Solomon, his son, should build. Soon after Solomon's accession to the throne he set about the labor, which, as heritage and honor, had come to him with his crown. He laid the foundation in the fourth year of his reign, *Exo. 40:34-38. *Josh. 18:1; see also 19:51; 21:2; Judges 18:31; :::

I Sam. 1:3, 24; 4:3,4. ***I Chron. 21:29; II Chron 1:3. til Sam. 6:12; II Chron. 5:2. ill Sam. 7:2. I'll Chron. 28:2, 2; compare II Sam. 7:1-13.

298 IMPROVEMENT ERA and the building was completed within seven years. With the

great wealth accumulated by his kingly father and specifically reserved for the building of the Temple, Solomon was able to put the known world under tribute, and to enlist the co-operation of nations in his great undertaking. The temple workmen numbered scores of thousands, and every department was in charge of master craftsmen. To serve on the great structure in any capacity was an honor ; and labor acquired a dignity never before Masonry became a profession, and the graded orders recognized. therein established have endured until this day. The erection of the Temple of Solomon was an epoch-making event, not alone in the history of Israel, but in that of the world. According to commonly accepted chronology, the Temple was finished in the year 1005 B. C. In architecture and construction, in design and costliness, it is known as one of the most remarkable buildings of history. The dedicatory services lasted seven days —a week of holy rejoicing in Israel. With imposing ceremony, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, including the sacred Ark of the Covenant, was brought into the Temple ; and the Ark was deposited in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. The Lord's gracious acceptance was manifest in the cloud that filled the sacred chambers as the priests withdrew : "So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."* Thus did the Temple supersede and include the Tabernacle, of which, indeed, it was a gorgeous counterpart. A comparison of the plan of Solomon's Temple with that of the earlier Tabernacle shows that in all essentials of arrangement and proportion the two were so nearly alike as to be practically identical. True, the Tabernacle had but one enclosure, and that only one hundred and eighty feet by ninety feet, while f he Temple was surrounded by three courts, the outer wall being half a mile in circuit but the inner structure itself, the Temple ;

The dimensions of proper, closely followed the earlier design. theHoly of Holies, the Holy Place, and the porch, were in the Temple exactly double those of the corresponding parts in the Tabernacle. The glorious pre-eminence of this splendid structure was of brief duration. Thirty-four years after its dedication, and but

*II Chron. 5:14; see also 71:2, and compare Exo. 40:35.

"THE HOUSE OF THE LORD" 299 five years subsequent to the death of Solomon, its decline began and this decline was soon to become an actual spoliation, if not indeed a virtual desecration. Solomon the king, the man of wisdom, the master-builder, had been led astray by the wiles of idolatrous women, and his wayward ways had fostered iniquity in Israel. The nation was no longer a unit; there were factions and sects, parties and creeds, some worshipping on the hill-tops, others under green trees, each party claiming pre-eminence for itsown particular shrine. The gift had been depreciated by the perfidy of the giver, and Jehovah withdrew his protecting presence from the Temple. The Egyptians, from whose bondage the people had been delivered, were again permitted to oppress Israel. Shishak, king of — Egypt, captured Jerusalem the city of David and the site of — the Holy Temple "and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord."* The Temple passed into the possession of pagans, and when Rehoboam, the king, "attempted to enter the sacred precincts, he was debarred.** Shishak and his hosts carried away the treasures of the once holy house the glorious Temple was largely ;

despoiled. Jehovah, whose house it was, relinquished the gift when the love of the giver had waned. Part of the sacred furniture left by the Egyptians was taken by others, and by them bestowed upon idols.*** The work of desecration continued through centuries. Two hundred and sixteen years after the Egyptian spoliation, Ahaz, king of Judah, robbed the Temple of some remaining treasures, and sent part of its remnant of gold and silver as a present to a pagan king whose favor he sought to gain. Furthermore, he removed the altar and the font, and left but a house where once had stood a Temple.f Later, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, completed the despoiling of the Temple, and carried away the few remaining treasures. He then destroyed the building itself by fire.t Thus, about six hundred years before the earthly advent of our Lord, Israel was left without a temple. The people had di- — vided; there were two kingdoms Israel and Judah each at — enmity with the other; they had become idolatrous and altogether

*I Kings 14:25, 26. **I Kings 14:27, 28. ***II Chron. 24:7. fll Kings 15:7-9; see also II Chron. 28:24, 25. til Chron. 36:18, 19; see also II Kings 24:13; 25:9.

300 IMPROVEMENT ERA wicked; the Lord had rejected them and their sanctuary. The Kingdom of Israel, comprising approximately ten of the twelve tribes, had been made subject to Assyria about 721 B. C, and a century later the Kingdom of Judah was subdued by the Babylonians. For seventy years the people of Judah thereafter — known as Jews — remained in captivity, even as had been predicted.* Then, under the friendly rule of Cyrus** and Darius*** they were permitted to return to Jerusalem, and once more to establish a Temple in accordance with their faith. In remembrance of the director of the work, the restored Temple is known in history as the Temple of Zerubbabel. The foundations were laid with solemn ceremony; and on that occasion living veterans who remembered the earlier Temple, wept with joy.f In spite of legal technicalities^ and other obstructions, the work continued, and within twenty years after their return from captivity the Jews had a Temple ready for dedication. The Temple of Zerubbabel was finished 515 B. C, specifically on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. The dedicatory services followed immediately. || While this temple was greatly inferior to the splendid Temple of Solomon, it was nevertheless the best a despoiled and captive people could build, and the Lord accepted it as an offering typifying the love and devotion of his covenant children. In proof of this divine acceptance, witness the ministrations of such prophets as Zechariah, Haggai, and Malachi, within its walls. In many respects the Temple of Zerubbabel was inferior to its —the Temple of Solomon; and certain splendid prototype in particulars, indeed, ranked lower than the ancient Tabernacle it of the Congregation — sacred the nomadic to tribes. Critical scholars specify the following features characteristic of the Temple of Solomon and lacking in the Temple of Zerubbabel : ( 1 ) the Ark of the Covenant; (2) the sacred fire; (3) the Shekinah, or glory of the Lord, manifested of old as the Divine Presence (4) ;

the Urim and Thummim, by which Jehovah made plain His will to the priests of the Aaronic order; (5) the genius or spirit of

*Jer. 25:11, 12; 29:10. **Ezra, chaps. 1 and 2. ***Ezra, chap. 6. fEzra 3:12, 13. JEzra 4:4-24. 1 Ezra 6:15-22. 1

302 IMPROVEMENT ERA prophecy, indicative of the closest communion between mortals and their God. In spite of these deficiencies the Temple of Zerubbabel was recognized of God, and was undoubtedly the site or seat of divine revelations to duly constituted prophets. In the year 37 Ij. C., Herod, known in history as Herod the Great, ascended the throne as King of the Jews. Possibly with intent to gain favor with the Jews, though perhaps with sincere and devoted purpose, he resolved to restore and practically reconstruct the decayed and generally ruinous Temple of Zerubbabel. For five centuries that structure had stood, and doubtless it was then a wreck of time. Herod began the reconstruction about sixteen years before the birth of Christ. The work continued through practically one decade, in the course of which eighteen thousand workmen were employed. During the .earthly ministry of our Lord,* the work progressed, but history fails to affirm that the great structure was ever finished. Certain it is that our Lord Jesus, while living as a man among men, recognized and acknowledged the Temple, as the one and only sanctuary of the Most High. Twice he strove by forcible means to cleanse the Temple and to clear its sacred precincts from commercial pollution.** It is from scripture that while opposed to the evident degraded and commercial ends to which the Temple had been betrayed, Christ recognized and acknowledged the sanctity of the Temple precincts. The Temple of Herod was a sacred structure by whatsoever name it might have been known, it was to Him the House of the Lord. And then, when the sable curtain descended upon the great tragedy of Calvary, when at last the agonizing cry, "It is finished," ascended from the Cross, the vail of the Temple was rent, and the one-time Holy of Holies was bared to public gaze. The absolute destruction of the Temple had been foretold by our Lord, while yet He lived in the flesh. f In the year 70 A. D. the Temple was utterly destroyed by fire in connection with the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus. We have no record of temples on the eastern hemisphere in the apostolic age. During that period the Church of Christ seems to have been without a central seat. As the great apostasy pro- *See John 2:20. **Matt. 21:12-17; Mark 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48. Compare an. earlier cleansing of the Temple, John 2:14-17. fMatt. 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6.

"THE HOUSE OF THE LORD' 303 gressed, even the conception or idea of a temple seems to have been lost among- men. For many centuries no offer of a temple was made unto the Lord indeed, it appears that no necessity of ;

a temple was recognized. The apostate church declared that direct communication from God had ceased, and the self-constituted government claimed supreme power. It is evident that, as far as the Church was concerned, the voice of the Lord had been silenced; that the people were no longer willing to listen to the word of revelation, and that the government of the Church had been abrogated by human agencies.* When, in the reign of Constantine, a perverted Christianity became the religion of state, the need of a place wherein God could reveal Himself was still utterly unseen or ignored. True, many edifices, most of them costly and imposing, were erected. These were dedicated to Peter and Paul, to James and John, to the Magdalene and the Virgin, but not one was raised by authority and name to the honor of Jesus, the Christ. Among the multitude of chapels and shrines, of churches and cathedrals, the Son of Man had not a place He could call His own. It was declared that the Pope, sitting in Rome, was the vicegerent of Christ, and that without revelation he was empowered to declare the will of God.** Not until the Gospel was restored in the nineteenth century, with its ancient powers and privileges, was the Priesthood manifest again among men. The Priesthood is essential to a Temple, and a Temple is void without its sacred authority. In the year of our Lord 1820, Joseph Smith, the prophet of the latest dispensation, then a lad in his fifteenth year, received a divine manifestation,*** in which both the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared and instructed the youthful suppliant. Through Joseph Smith, the Gospel of old was restored to earth, and the ancient law was re-established. In course of time, through the ministry of the chosen prophet, the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" was organized, and its establishment was marked by manifestations of divine power.f It is a significant fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of

*See the author's "The Great Apostasy." **See the author's "The Great Apostasy," chap. X. ***See the author's "The Articles of Faith." Lecture 1. and references thereto. tSee the author's "The Articles of Faith," specifically Leo+ure 1, and notes thereon.

304 IMPROVEMENT ERA Latter-day Saints, true to the distinction it affirms —that of being the Church of the living God, as its name proclaims —began in the very early days of its history to provide for the erection of a Temple.* The Church was organized as an earthly body-corporate on the sixth of April, A. D. 1830; and, in July of the year following, a revelation was received designating the site of a future temple near Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. The construction of a temple on this chosen spot is yet delayed, as is also the case with another temple-site in Far West, Missouri,** on which the corner stones were laid in 1838. The Church holds as a sacred trust the commission to build the temples so located, but as yet the way has not been opened for the consummation of the plan. In the meantime temples in other places have been reared, and already the modern dispensation is marked by the erection of six such sacred edifices. On the first day of June, 1833, in a revelation to the prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord directed the immediate building of a holy house, in w hich He promised to endow His chosen servants with power and authority.*** The people responded to the call with willingness and devotion. In spite of dire poverty and unrelenting persecution, the work was carried to completion, and in March, 1836, the first Temple of modern times was dedicated at Kirtland, Ohio.f The dedicatory services were marked by divine manifestations comparable to those attending the offering of the great Temple of olden times ; and on later occasions heavenly beings appeared within the sacred precincts with revelations of the Divine will to man. In that place the Lord Jesus was again seen and heard. Within two years from the time of its dedication the Kirtland Temple was abandoned by the people who built it they were ;

forced to flee because of mobocratic violence, and with their departure the sacred Temple became an ordinary house, disowned of the Lord to whose name it had been reared. The building still stands and is used as a meeting-house by a small and comparatively unknown sect. The migration of the Latter-day Saints was to the west and ;

they established themselves fir§t in Missouri, and later in Illinois

*See Doctrine and Covenants 36:8; 42:36; 133:2. See Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 20. Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 95. tSee Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 109. tSee Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 90.

306 IMPROVEMENT ERA with Nauvoo as the central seat of the Church. Scarcely had they become settled in their new abode when the voice of revelation was heard calling upon the people to again build a house sacred to the name of God. Thus spake the Lord: And again, verily I say unto you, Let all my Saints come from afar; And send ye swift messengers, yea chosen messengers, and say unto them: come ye, with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, and with all your antiquities; and with all who have knowledge of antiquities, that will come, may come, and bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth; And with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth, and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein; For there is not a place found on earth that he may come and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the Priesthood; For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my Saints, may be baptized for those who are dead; For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me. But I command you, all ye my Saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me, and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me. But behold, at the end of this appointment, your baptisms for jour dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment, ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God. For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be acceptable unto me. For therein are the keys of the holy Priesthood, ordained that you may receive honor and glory. And after this time, your baptisms for the dead, by those who are scattered abroad, are not acceptable unto me saith the Lord; For it is ordained that in Zion, and in her stakes, and in Jerusalem, those places which I have appointed for refuge, shall be the places for your baptisms for your dead. And again, verily I say unto you, How shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name? For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and

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308 IMPROVEMENT ERA to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was; Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrilices, by the sons of Levi, and lor your oracles in your most holy places, wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name. And verily I say unto you, Let this house be built unto my name, that i may reveal mine ordinances therein, unto my people; For I deign to reveal unto my church, things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times.*

The corner stones of the Nauvoo Temple were laid April 6, 1841, and the capstone was placed in position May 24, 1845, each event being celebrated by a solemn assembly and sacred service. Though it was evident that the people would be forced to flee again, and though all knew that the Temple would have to be abandoned soon after completion, they labored with might and diligence to finish and properly furnish the structure. It was dedicated April 30, 1846, though certain portions, such as the baptistry, had been previously dedicated and used in sacred ordinance work. The dedication of the completed structure was semi-private, owing to impending persecution dedicatory services ;

of a public nature followed, however. Many of the Saints received their blessings and holy endowments in the Nauvoo Temple, though even before the completion of the building the exodus of the people had begun. The sacred structure was soon abandoned by those who in poverty and by sacrifice had reared it. In November, 1848, it fell a prey to incendiary flames, and in May, 1850, a tornado demolished what remained of the blackened walls. On the 24th of July, 1847, the "Mormon" pioneers entered the valleys of Utah, while yet the region was Mexican territory, and established a settlement where now stands Salt Lake City. Four days later Brigham Young, prophet and leader, indicated a site in the sagebrush wastes, and, striking the arid ground with his staff, proclaimed, "Here will be the Temple of our God." That Doctrine and Covenants 124:25-41; consider the entire section.

310 IMPROVEMENT ERA site is now the beautiful Temple block, around which the city has grown. In February, 1853, the Temple block was dedicated with sacred service, and on the sixth of April following, the corner stones of the building were laid to the accompaniment of solemn and imposing ceremony. The Salt Lake City Temple was forty years in building. The capstone was laid on the sixth of April, 1892, and the completed Temple was dedicated one year later. Of the four temples already erected in Utah, the one in Salt Lake City was first begun and the last finished. During its course of construction thiee other temples were built by the Latter-day Saints, one at St. George, one at Logan, and one at Manti, Utah. — Add to these the two earlier temples at Kirtland, Ohio, and at — Nauvoo, Illinois and we have six of these sacred structures already erected in the present and last dispensation of the Priest- — hood the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. It is not in line with the purposes of the present chapter to consider in detail any particular temple, either ancient or modern the writer's object has been to show the essential and distinguishing features of temples, and to make plain the fact that the covenant people have regarded the building of temples as a labor specifically required at their hands. From what has been said it is plain that a temple more than chapel or church, more than is synagogue or cathedral it is a structure erected as the House of ;

the Lord, sacred to the closest communion between the Lord himself and the Holy Priesthood, which constitutes the earthly embodiment of Divine authority, and devoted to the highest and most sacred rites and ceremonies characteristic of the age or dispensation to which the particular temple belongs. Moreover, to be indeed a holy temple— accepted of God, and by Him acknowledged as — His house the offering must have been called for, and both giftand giver must be worthy. Furthermore, the design of the temple must have been divinely revealed. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that it is the possessor of the Holy Priesthood again restored to earth, and that it is invested with divine commission to erect and maintain temples —holy temples, dedicated to the name and service of the true and living God, and to administer within those sacred structures the ordinances of the Priesthood, the effect of which shall be binding both on earth and beyond the grave.